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Passage IV
The first requirement to ensure nuclear safety is technical expertise which India has. No questions have been raised so far about the expertise in Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). The first reactors were imported. Soon after commissioning, the original suppliers left leaving us to fend for ourselves. The reactors have been running for decades without any serious environmental issues. More reactors have since been built indigenously with enhanced safety features and increased power rating. Continuous monitoring of these shows negligible environmental impact compared to that arising from natural background radiation. All of this was possible because of the expertise available in DAE institutions. In the early years, there was self-regulation of safety. It has to be so because there was no other group working in this field. It worked very well. As the program expanded, a full-time regulatory body was needed and so, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) came into being. Continuing absence of education and research in nuclear technology in academic institutions meant the AERB had to be staffed with experts transferred to it from DAE units. AERB also had to rely on expertise in DAE for various kinds of analyses. This was facilitated by the AERB being under the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Information that ought to have been disseminated in the first place was not available to the public. This has naturally tended to impute motives on attitude of AERB and DAE to safety. An independent regulator is being demanded as the answer. Steps have to be initiated in that direction now Meanwhile, reliance on expertise in DAE institutions is inevitable. If total independence now is impractical and expertise outside DAE is unavailable, only total transparency on the part of AERB and DAE can redeem the situation. This has not yet come about. If a larger contribution from nuclear energy is required, more effort is needed to effectively answer public questions on plant safety and to dispel needless fear of radiation. A brand new independent agency to be set up now to regulate nuclear safety may please some people, but would find it difficult to cope with the demands of an expanding programme with new designs.
The first requirement to ensure nuclear safety is technical expertise which India has. No questions have been raised so far about the expertise in Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). The first reactors were imported. Soon after commissioning, the original suppliers left leaving us to fend for ourselves. The reactors have been running for decades without any serious environmental issues. More reactors have since been built indigenously with enhanced safety features and increased power rating. Continuous monitoring of these shows negligible environmental impact compared to that arising from natural background radiation. All of this was possible because of the expertise available in DAE institutions. In the early years, there was self-regulation of safety. It has to be so because there was no other group working in this field. It worked very well. As the program expanded, a full-time regulatory body was needed and so, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) came into being. Continuing absence of education and research in nuclear technology in academic institutions meant the AERB had to be staffed with experts transferred to it from DAE units. AERB also had to rely on expertise in DAE for various kinds of analyses. This was facilitated by the AERB being under the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Information that ought to have been disseminated in the first place was not available to the public. This has naturally tended to impute motives on attitude of AERB and DAE to safety. An independent regulator is being demanded as the answer. Steps have to be initiated in that direction now Meanwhile, reliance on expertise in DAE institutions is inevitable. If total independence now is impractical and expertise outside DAE is unavailable, only total transparency on the part of AERB and DAE can redeem the situation. This has not yet come about. If a larger contribution from nuclear energy is required, more effort is needed to effectively answer public questions on plant safety and to dispel needless fear of radiation. A brand new independent agency to be set up now to regulate nuclear safety may please some people, but would find it difficult to cope with the demands of an expanding programme with new designs.
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